Working through submissions to AUK’s news email involves listening to a lot of music to determine whether or not it fits the editorial criteria for inclusion. and, americana being no different to any other genre, there is quite a lot of mediocrity to wade through. One of the joys is discovering new acts and, occasionally, finding them right at the outset of their career.
Emily Haden Lee is a singer-songwriter based in Chicago and has announced the release of her debut album “The Woman I Would Be”. The record was co-produced by Chicago singer Steve Dawson and Lee’s husband Alex. It is scheduled for release on 20th September 2024 on Dibbs Records.
Lee grew up in southern Missouri in a family which embraced poetry, jazz and early 1970s pre-americana acts like Crosby Stills and Nash and Bonnie Raitt. As a teenager she grew to love the music of the Dixie Chicks and, through them, Patty Griffin. After stints at Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute and Indiana University, she relocated to Chicago and began taking songwriting classes at the Old Town School of Folk Music where she discovered the powerful emotional outlet writing her own songs could offer.
Songwriting helped her navigate the difficult emotions that came with slowly losing her father to cancer. It also provided her with a base as she coped with the aftermath of her father’s demise, her family’s struggles with alcoholism and depression and her brother’s eventual death. The songs on her “The Woman I Would Be” were written during this time and record the journey of heartbreak and growth that accompanies the loss of those you love. You can pre-order “The Woman I Would Be” here.
Lee, who also works as an artist (examples of her work can be seen on her website) and plays gigs around Chicago either by herself or with her husband, with whom she is expecting their first child in the autumn of 2024.
You can listen to the lead-off single ‘Cowboy’ below.
